Waiting for Spring - winter snow scene, palette knife painting

Waiting for Spring - winter snow scene

palette knife painting

24x35cm (approx 10x14inch)

on box canvas

Day 30 of the 30 day challenge

Well the last day of the challenge is here, and it is time to take a breather and stock of all the paintings. I like some much better than others and will work on a few some more after I have studied them. Sometimes it takes a while to be able to assess a painting more critically than when it has just been painted.

About this painting
This was painted from a photograph on Paint my Photo, in response to this week's challenge on Daily Paintworks. I painted it over three days as the trees refused to form into a painterly order. The lef-hand-most tree was painted and wiped several times. It started out as a very thick tree, but just did not look right. It's much better now I have given it some breathing space.

Limited palette
I used a limited palette of alazarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadmium orange and a touch of cadmium yellow. Maybe I should have toned down the alazarin to make it less red? Let me know what you think?

Some close-ups

Day 4, 30 paintings in 30 days January 2014 challenge

Morning Light Silver Birches

palette knife painting

oil on canvas panel

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

Available to purchase US$120 international shipping incl.

I actually got down to painting something new for the fourth day of the challenge.

Theme for the challenge
I have been trying to think of a suitable theme for the challenge. I came up with several ideas but couldn't narrow it down to something I would want to do for 30 days. The one thing I was adamant about, was I wanted to paint smaller than my norm (24x18cm) so that I could paint more quickly and leave time for continuing on a larger painting.

I ordered some super heavy liquitex gesso and had my 6x8" box canvases all stacked up waiting. The gesso arrived today and I found out that it takes a minimum of 24hours to dry! So I have fallen down at the first hurdle and painted this on my usual 18x24cm canvas panel.

So for the theme for my challenge is THERE IS NO THEME! I will just continue to practice and work on my techniques with ideas as they pop into my head, having fun along the way.

Today's Painting
This is a photo I took while out for a walk one morning in an area called Sherwood Pines. The sun was shining and although it was cold, it was a nice morning for a walk. You might ask -

"Where are the pines?"
Sherwood Pines is an old pine plantation right in the middle of Sherwood forest (yes THE Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame) where they grew pines for pit props. As the mining industry no longer exists, they are gradually replacing the pines with indigenous trees. The area has been converted for  leisure use with bike and walking trails and an adventure playground for the kids. A great use of the area.

Sherwood Pines revisited
You might remember my previous painting from the September challenge of another walk in the same area, see here

Some close-ups of the knife work

Much of the pink ground is left showing to add 'sparkle'

Some of the initial brush stroke block-in is left untouched

The foreground is left deliberately loose and suggestive

Winter Light - Oil on stretched canvas

Winter Light

Oil on stretched canvas

45x37 cm approx (18x15 inches)
Available to purchase HERE
325€ international shipping included

This was painted during a Johannes Vloothuis paint-a-long webinar earlier in the year. It was my first time painting snow and ice, brrrrr!

This painting is also available as a Christmas card on Greeting Card Universe

Winter Light oil painting, Day 16, 30 days hath September challenge

Winter Light oil painting

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

oil on unstretched canvas

palette knife painting
 Day 16, 30 days hath September challenge

The painting for day 16 is a winter scene full of light. I'm not partial to snow, but the colours in this have worked well, I think. It reminds me of those crisp winter afternoons we had occasionally in England when I lived there.

Unstretched canvas
This is painted onto unstretched, primed canvas which I stapled onto a support while painting. I liked painting on this surface, the paint adhered well and I was able to build up the layers.

Winter Scene - Zorn palette oil painting

Winter scene, Zorn palette study

30x40cm (12"x16") oil on box canvas

NFS

This is the third study using the Zorn palette and I used a palette knife for the final stages. I am finding it difficult to get the nuances in the tones to achieve a sense of distance.  Now that I look at the photo, I see that there is also not much difference between the tone of the ice in the river and the dark shadow, although I thought there was while I was painting it. I shall look at this for a while and maybe work on it some more to differentiate those tones more and to make the background recede more.

Tonight is the last web tutorial by Ken, and we should be using additional accent colours which should be interesting.

Snow Scene - Limited palette study 3

 

Snow Scene Limited Palette study 3

10x15 cm, soft pastel on peach card

The third study using lavender, cadmium yellow and dark green (plus a pale blue white) on colorfix treated card.

For me, this is quite effective and it shows how the support colour can be used to good effect when using a limited palette. If I was to work this one up into a painting, I would stick with the same colour combinations including the shades either either side of the colours used here. That would give more variation  in the lights and darks, particularly the lavender. The use of less white would also give a more lively look.

Take a look at study 1 and study 2

Snow scene - limited palette study 2

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 2

4"x6" Pastel 

on Peach coloured card treated with Colorfix Primer

The second in the series, this time using a limited palette of dark green, cadmium red and pale lilac plus white.

You can see that by using complements (the red and green) a more 'moody' or subdued painting is achieved. Compare this to study 1 which essentially used a primary colour palette of red, blue and yellow

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 2

Click HERE to view the previous post

Snow scene - limited palette study 1

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 1

4"x6" Pastel 

on Peach coloured card treated with Colorfix Primer

 I have been reading a lot just lately about using a limited palette when painting and how it brings colour harmony to a painting. To work my way through this concept I have decided to paint several studies in pastel using only three colours plus white. Yes, you heard right. As you know I love colour so this is going to be especially hard for me, but I have made it slightly easier by  choosing snow scenes which are, in the most part, monochrome.
For this painting (and the next three), I coated a piece of peach coloured card with colourless Colorfix primer. This gives the card a 'tooth' that grips onto the pastel. I chose a burgundy, mid-dark blue and cadmium yellow plus a white that had a very pale blue shade.
I found I was having fun, which surprised me. The only snag was, that because I limited myself to only the three pastels, I had to work into the pastel a lot to get the different shades. Even so, I like the way this turned out, and I think this was successful. I gradually post the other studies over the next few days.